1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to electronic communication within group forums, specifically a process for dynamically matching users for high quality interactions within a group forum by establishing individual user profile data and acceptance criteria data for restricting interaction.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
There are many systems that allow users and groups of users to interact with each other. Electronic forums such as electronic mail, voicemail, USENET newsgroups, web-based discussion boards, and online multi-player gaming services all have such facilities. But none of the systems gives users individualized acceptance criteria parameters for locating high quality matches with other users. Each forum is created with a particular subject or objective in mind, and beyond that all users must follow the boundaries of that forum. It is strictly a xe2x80x9ctake it or leave itxe2x80x9d proposition to the user. There is little opportunity for a user to personalize the forum to meet his own needs.
With electronic mail, users must know the email addresses of those they want to contact. Electronic mailing lists improved on this for group communication by redistributing each message sent to the list""s email address out to all subscribers. All users get all messages sent to the list. But there are problemsxe2x80x94smaller mailing lists are hard to promote and popularize while larger lists are unwieldy, tending to have many rules of use and/or a high message volume, and a high intimidation factor. In short, users have no control over which users on a list they communicate with. An additional problem is not knowing how much email a subscription will deliver to you. One subscription may bring only a few messages per month while another one fills a user""s mailbox with 50 or more messages in a single day.
One common yet inflexible division within a topic is by geographic region. Consider a hypothetical worldwide xe2x80x9cjazzxe2x80x9d mailing list: If a subscriber wants only to communicate about jazz with people in New York City, he must create a separate mailing list, such as xe2x80x9cnyc-jazzxe2x80x9d. For most users, the work involved in creating and managing a list is prohibitive. Some regional groups may develop their own jazz mailing lists, but such lists are usually tough to advertise and promote. Regional lists are inflexible because they have pre-set borders, e.g., the borders of New York City. That list will not meet the needs of users just outside city limits who may have a lot in common with those near them just inside city limits, but little in common with those across town. Each user""s needs are different and yet the current mailing list systems are inflexible in allowing users to express their needs and wants via customization.
Similarly, there is much work involved in forming a neighborhood mailing list. If someone in a particular neighborhood wants to communicate with neighbors, there are many steps he must take. First he must create a mailing list. Then he may determine the borders of the neighborhood. This is problematic if it is unclear where the borders should be, as is the case with many unnamed neighborhoods. And then he may advertise and evangelize the mailing list to build subscribership. Since most neighborhoods do not have any channel for information distribution (such as a printed newsletter), this is a daunting task.
To extend the example, different people have different wants and needs even within geographically regional communication. In FIG. 1, one person (A) may want to exchange email with others within a one-mile radius of him. A second person (B) may only want to exchange email with those/on his block. A third person (C) may want only to exchange email with folks in one direction from his house. However, there is currently no way for users to express these desires to control heir participation in a mailing list.
There are countless meaningful acceptance criteria that would benefit users. Consider a parenting mailing list. In general, once a mailing list is formed, it tends to develop its own scope of interest. In this example, the parenting list may develop a very strong trend of discussing infants and toddlers. This can be very limiting for a subscriber who wants to discuss teenagers. That subscriber must delete many unwanted messages and may simply unsubscribe from the list in frustration. She may consider a search for a better list, or she may consider starting a separate mailing list for parents of teenagers, but again the barrier to entry is high. Since the mailing list system cannot leverage information about the ages of children each subscriber is interested in, it cannot deliver to her just those messages about teenagers.
In online gaming, such as xe2x80x9cYahoo! Gamesxe2x80x9d, users are able to rendezvous with other users to play multi-player games, such as the card game xe2x80x9cheartsxe2x80x9d. The service provider will often divide the players into several forums based on ability, such as beginner, intermediate, and advanced. But it does, not allow users to specify other acceptance criteria data, such as personality, computer speed, or amount of xe2x80x9cchat-stylexe2x80x9d conversation they want to engage in during a game. Thus users must either live with low quality matches or resort to trial and error, quitting games in the middle, in a search for the characteristics they want in the game. Again the user""s only choice is xe2x80x9ctake it or leave it.xe2x80x9d
A number of email based news and information services such as InfoBeat provide customized messages to their subscribers, but the messages are only sent by the service itself, not by other users. It is meant for automated information delivery, not interpersonal communication and interaction.
Dating services and employee-employer matching services use criteria and profile information to match people together, but they use those results only for one-on-one communication. hey have not used matching technology for group communication in which each user has their own personalized group.
Although the discussion here has been principally of the interaction provided by electronic mailing lists, other group forums such as USENET newsgroups, web-based discussion message boards. ah online gaming rendezvous are alternatives that exhibit similar problems.
Thus, a method is needed for creating high quality interactions within electronic forms.
Briefly, a presently preferred embodiment of the present invention is directed to a method for users to exchange group electronic mail by establishing individual profiles and criteria for determining personalized subsets within a group. Users establish subscriptions to an electronic mailing list by specifying user profile data and acceptance criteria data to screen other users. When a user subscribes, a web server establishes and stores an individualized recipient list including each matching subscriber and their degree of one-way or mutual match with the user.
When the user then ""sends a message to the mailing list, an email server retrieves her 100% matches and then optionally filters her recipient list down to a message distribution list using each recipient""s message criteria. The message is then distributed to matching users.
Additionally, email archives and information contributions from users are stored in a database. A web server creates an individualized set of web pages for a user from the database, containing contributions only from users in his recipient list. In other embodiments, users apply one-way or mutual criteria matching and message profile criteria to other group forums, such as web-based discussion boards, chat, online clubs, USENET newsgroups, voicemail, instant messaging, web browsing side channel communities, and online gaming rendezvous.
Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:
(a) Creates personalized, tunable groups for users, using user profile data and acceptance criteria data they specify. This fundamental novelty greatly empowers and enriches the quality of their communications.
(b) Greatly reduces the quantity of electronic forums such as electronic mailing lists, by making possible a small number very broad forums within which users can create their own niches. For instance, a single jazz mailing list can serve the entire world.
(c) Allows users to very easily create discussion niches of meaning to them. They may want to only email with other senior citizens, or only with those in their city. In the parenting example given earlier, each user could specify the children""s age range they would like to discuss. The resulting mailing list is tuned to each user""s needs, and gives them a much higher quality of interpersonal contact.
(d) Provides a way for meaningful groups to form automatically, such as neighborhoods.
(e) Provides a way of filtering archived information provided by subscribers into individualized archives. This includes email archives as well as other information such as recommended businesses and web sites.
Additional objects and advantages are to benefit society by creating and uniting a huge number of niche groups, and to meet a compelling and immediate user need to customize email list communications according to individual profiles. By dynamically matching each user""s profile data and acceptance criteria data to others, the system creates a customized group for each user, enabling groups to form automatically.
Users need a fluid, flexible, and expressive means of controlling their interactions with others. They need to be able to drastically increase the quality of communication, while controlling the quantity of it. This invention enables these users to customize their communications and interactions.
Further objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and ensuing description.